New Study Suggests Drug Overdoses are Increasing Under New Policies – What Does it Miss?

A study in JAMA Health Forum is making headlines by suggesting that British Columbia’s safer supply and decriminalization policies were linked to a rise in opioid-related hospitalizations. Researchers found that safer supply alone was associated with a 33% increase in hospitalizations, and when combined with decriminalization, the overall rise was 58%.

For critics of harm reduction, those numbers looked like confirmation of their fears. But here’s the catch: the study also found no increase in overdose deaths. In fact, deaths in B.C. actually fell in 2024 — the lowest rate since 2020.

Lisa Lapointe, B.C.’s former chief coroner, quickly pointed out what the study missed: “the significant decrease in opioid-related deaths in B.C. in 2024.” She also reminded us that “the number of deaths grew exponentially under the criminalization program” — the system we had before these reforms.

That context matters. Hospitalizations going up can be a sign that more people are willing to seek medical help without fear of punishment. As the study itself noted, decriminalization may have “reduced the stigma associated with drug use,” making people more likely to call 911 or go to the ER when things go wrong. Put bluntly: you can’t recover if you’re dead, and ending up in a hospital alive is better than being left to die in the shadows.

The Ministry of Health echoed this, warning against simplistic readings of the data. The study only looked at numbers up until the end of 2023, and during that period, the toxicity of the illicit drug supply spiked dramatically due to border closures and the introduction of new contaminants like benzodiazepines — substances that don’t respond to naloxone. As the Ministry said, B.C. continues to “carefully examine all emerging evidence,” but research that leaves out these variables risks misleading the public.

What this debate really shows is the danger of cherry-picking statistics in the middle of a crisis. Yes, overdose hospitalizations are up. But deaths are down. If the goal is saving lives, and it should be, then safer supply and decriminalization appear to be working where decades of criminalization failed.

At Horizon, we don’t pretend these policies are perfect. Addiction is complex, and no single measure will solve the crisis. But stigmatizing people, punishing them, and pushing them further into the shadows has failed for decades. If hospital visits are the tradeoff for fewer body bags, that’s not a failure, that’s progress.